New Poll Shows that Perry’s Entrance Scrambled GOP Race

A new poll by Public Policy Polling puts Texas Gov. Rick Perry in the front of the GOP presidential field in Iowa and shows just how much Perry’s entrance into the race scrambled the contest for the Republican nomination.

The poll, released Tuesday (.pdf), shows that 21% of the poll respondents would support Perry in the Iowa caucuses next February, outpacing the two other Republican frontrunners Michele Bachmann and Mitt Romney. Romney’s campaign has been focusing on New Hampshire, a state that is considered a must win for his campaign.

If the contest were simplified to a three-way race between Bachmann, Romney and Perry – Perry would be supported by 34 percent of respondents as opposed to just 28% for Romney and 24% for Bachmann.

As a possible indication of just how much Perry’s entrance in the race has hurt the Bachmann campaign, in a hypothetical match-up between Romney and Bachmann, the Minnesota congresswoman would eek out a narrow (inside the margin of error) victory with 44% of the vote.

Perry has the best favorability rating of any GOP candidate among probable Iowa caucus voters with 56% having a favorable opinion and only 24% having a negative opinion – even after Perry’s controversial statements about global warming, evolution and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Perry’s statements on evolution and global warming fit the profile of Iowa caucus voters — 66% of Iowa caucus voters do not believe in global warming and that only 35% believe in evolution.

NOTE – Public Policy Polling is a Democratically aligned polling firm that has had an impressive track record over the last few years of being able to accurately model outcomes. In stark contrast to other pollsters such as Rasmussen, PPP makes their survey internals freely available to the public.

As always, a poll is nothing more than a snapshot in time of public opinion and the Iowa caucuses are still month’s away.